


Grumpy

by Withstarryeyes



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Flu, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Steve Rogers, Sick Tony, Sick Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 03:50:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16946442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Withstarryeyes/pseuds/Withstarryeyes
Summary: Tony had always dipped into a grumpy mood when he wasn’t feeling good. So it was no surprise that Tony was looking for a fight when Steve came in from his run that morning, loudly clanging down his mug on the counter and pulling out a pan to make bacon and eggs.





	Grumpy

**Author's Note:**

> A request from my tumblr by taylor_tut asking for a cranky Tony when he's sick and the rest of the avengers just assuming he's being mean.

Tony had always dipped into a grumpy mood when he wasn’t feeling good. The biggest fight he’d ever gotten into with Rhodey had been at MIT when he’d had the flu but was too stubborn to admit it. It had been finals week and Rhodey hadn’t even noticed the fact that Tony had been shivering and coughing all morning. He just knew his mood had been sour and when he’d tried to pull Tony away from his notebooks for dinner they’d ended up screaming at each other so loud over responsibility and tests and life that their RA had threatened to kick them outside. Then Tony had promptly thrown up into their trashcan and it was over. 

So it was no surprise that Tony was looking for a fight when Steve came in from his run that morning, loudly clanging down his mug on the counter and pulling out a pan to make bacon and eggs. Each clank sent pricks shooting through Tony’s mind and he covered his eyes with his hand, sucking in a pained breath. 

“Could you be more loud, Cap?” Tony gritted out, snappish and primal. Steve stilled and glanced over. 

“I could, but that would defeat the purpose of making breakfast while everyone's still in bed.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t woken them up yet with all that racket.”

Steve huffed and started to turn to say something else when Tony waved him off and stood to go down to his lab. It didn’t surprise Steve, Tony liked to pick fights with him most days and yesterday they had had a long mission. He put it off to Tony blowing off steam.

Clint was leaning against the panel of Tony’s lab when he got down there, hand curled around a mug of tea. His stomach gave a small flip as he took in a sip, the thick syrup at the bottom coating his mouth. He blew out slowly and slammed his palm against the reader. 

“What do you want birdbrain?” Tony said, aiming for joking but skidding straight into bitter. 

“Wow what crawled into your iron ass and died there, Stark?” Clint laughed and followed Tony straight into the lab. It was blistering warm, pumping heat in to compensate for being in the basement of a New York building in the middle of the winter. 

Tony shivered and tucked his jacket around his body a little further, settling down on the bench and booting up his blueprints. “I don’t have time to play today Clint. Think you can go hang out with your mama spider?” 

“Widow’s on a mission and you asked me to be here. Wanted me to try out the new arrows, remember.” 

Tony hadn’t. He’d started feeling sick after the mission last night and he’d woken up with a fever and a banging headache. He thought it was just a cold but his stomach seemed to be rioting more and more every second and his muscles were beginning to cramp up. His hand seized up right as he started to lie to Clint and he hissed, sitting on his hand. 

Clint bristled, his eyes narrowing. “Did you just hiss at me?”

“No,” Tony said, then backpedaled, “Actually yes. I… forgot about the arrows. They’re still in production so I don’t need you this morning. Cap’s upstairs, he might have something for you.

Clint rolled his eyes and cursed Tony out under his breath but fully retreated. He knew he was in trouble then. Cap already was on Tony’s back for not being a team player and he’d just managed to piss off two of his team members in half an hour. 

But he didn’t have time to worry about that. His head was swimming and he couldn’t breathe through his nose. His back was tight and his eyes were itching. One minute the workshop was hot, then it was ice cold. He was sick, dangerously sick, and he knew it was only a matter of time before the arc reactor made things worse. But Bruce was out of town and Nat was on a mission. There was no way he was letting spangles know he was under the weather and as much as he knew Clint wouldn’t give him too hard of a time if he came clean it was easier for everyone if he took care of it himself. 

He set up a trashcan by the couch in his workshop and dragged one of the blankets from upstairs in there. “JARVIS?”

“Yes, sir,” the AI replied, sounding more concerned than a robot should be able to. 

“Wake me in 30? Cap likes us to attend team lunches.”

“Of course, sir. But I must advise you alert the captain to your condition. You have a

fever of 101 and are beginning to show tremors, low blood pressure, a cough and nausea.”

“See you in 30,” Tony said and rolled over, shoving his face into the crack between the cushions where it was cool and dark. He knew it was going to be a bitch to drag himself out of slumber by then but he really didn’t want to be conscious anymore and if he told Cap he’d just think he was faking to avoid his commitments. 

The thing was, Tony forgot that dreaming with a fever never meant good things for him. The heat pounded his dreams with thick sand and foreign accents, and just when he thought it would be about Afghanistan it’d flip into the wormhole or even his childhood, with Howard sticking Tony in his workshop for hours, forgetting to turn on the ac or even a fan and expecting whatever project he’d put him on to be done when he was back. 

He wasn’t sure how long he had slept. His dreams spanned decades and felt double the length of that and when he woke his mouth was dry, metal panging across his tongue. There were people in the workshop, he could hear them talking through his groggy mind. 

It had been longer than 30 minutes, he was sure. Cap and Clint would’ve never come down here on their own and JARVIS wouldn’t have alerted him unless his vitals had taken a dive. He groaned and flipped over, the light invading his eyes. He shut them, breathing heavily through his nose as a cramp shot through his calf. 

“Tony? Thank god, we’ve been trying to wake you for five minutes.”

“Traitor,” he murmured up towards his AI. JARVIS whirred. 

“Sir, you were unresponsive. Fever peaked at 103 degrees and rising. Captain was inquiring about your whereabouts.”

Clint was standing behind the couch and Tony felt him press his hand against his forehead. “Barely sweating, I think we’ll need to give him an IV.”

“Do you want to move upstairs, Tony?” Steve hadn’t called him Tony since after The Chitari. They’d had a few moments of solidarity but after the team had moved into the tower he and Steve had only butted heads. 

He struggled to sit up, swatting away Steve’s hands. His head protested the movement but he finally managed to get his eyes open. Steve looked worried and tired. He was crouching and his hands were wavering, unsure where to go or what to do. 

“Just leave me here, let me sleep it off.”

“Can’t do, Shellhead. Not gonna let you bake under your own sickness.”

“I’m fine,” he gritted out and Steve scoffed. 

“Are you always this prickly when you’re sick? Let us take care of you, Stark. We’re a team.”

“Not a team player,” Tony shot out and winced. Steve’s face fell. “Look, Tony, I know we’ve had our differences but you’re one of us. You’re vulnerable, let us carry some of your weight.”

It was sincere, Tony could tell. Steve was actually concerned and he’d dropped his high and mighty routine for a few minutes. The room was tilting under Tony’s hands and he felt like he’d been run over by a bus. It had been a long time since he’d had someone take care of him. He hated it, preferred to just stay alone and lick his wounds. But this was an olive branch and he’d be an idiot not to take it. He nodded and let Steve pull him up and wrap an arm around his shoulder. 

“I’m sorry,” he said halfway up. Steve stilled and Clint almost ran into the back of them, carrying Tony’s pillow and blanket. “I’m cranky when I’m sick, Say stuff I don’t mean.”

Steve seemed to turn that over, his eyes clouding over. His shoulders were down when he replied. “Not your fault, besides I knew a man like you. Would fight tooth and nail when he was sick. He was my best friend but it sure didn’t stop me from wanting to strangle him if only to get him to rest.”

“Barnes?” Tony asked head ducked. It had been in the debriefing files they’d all gotten before the Avengers initiative. 

Steve nodded and then continued, dragging Tony all the way to the common room sofa. Two months ago Steve would’ve yelled at Tony for even speaking that name, but it seemed that this moment, where Tony was stripped bare of his persona, and Steve had the chance to fall back on his caregiver ways, both of their egos just fell away. 

“Sleep, I’ll make some toast if you’re up for it later,” Steve said and Tony picked at his blanket. He was dead tired and he was fighting his lids just to stay coherent. But he didn’t want to sleep, didn’t want those nightmares again. Steve stalled as Tony did, not saying anything but projecting what he meant all the same. 

“Clint and I’ll stay in here. I need the TV to review some of the footage of yesterday’s mission. Plus I need to watch Clint fill out his paperwork, he’s worse than you I swear.”

Tony wanted to fight it. He knew Steve was acting on Tony’s hesitation, was pushing himself in. And Tony wanted it, he wanted the comfort so badly. Any other time he’d tell him he was fine, that Stark men didn’t cry or hurt or need a night light. But he was tired and scared, and if he was ever going to be comfortable with this team he was going to need to trust them. 

“Wake me up when I’m on screen, I’d love to see myself save the day again.”

Steve laughed, and it was warm and full and genuine. Tony felt himself smile and settled down, drifting off to Steve’s reply. “Of course, Stark, and I’ll give you pointers on all the things you did wrong.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked this! If you did please leave a kudos or a comment, the feedback really motivates me. 
> 
> Thanks!  
> C


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